I will admit, I was wrong on the SW Idaho winter weather. I expected a dry and very cold winter and we have Spring like temps in January. In the first week of Feb. we will have daytime highs in the 50 degree F. range according to the weather forecasts. I don’t mind as the warm ‘winter” has helped me on the fire wood usage, as well as stock both myself and Mom with kindling and fire starters. Ironically I’m using more fire starters and kindling for fires 2 times a day but I’m using less wood overall. I think I’ve used just a bit over a cord of wood so far this winter. That is very good, as I have been sharing some of my wood with Mom to help her build her wood pile.

I really want to have at least 2+ years worth of seasoned wood on hand and with the warm winter that should be doable this year. I suspect that many people bought wood in fall 2018 won’t buy more wood in 2019 because the winter was so mild. That is great for me as I’ll start stacking more wood in April to get a start my 2 years worth goal and buy early. While others think there won’t be another cold/snowy winter. I got both of my kindling boxes filled plus an18 gallon bucket full of kindling today. If the winter weather stays mild I should be good too go through March!

I’m not stopping work on getting the kindling cut or making fire starters. But I need to focus more on getting everything ready for spring planting and getting the Greenhouse installed while we have this warm weather for at least the next 10 days. I’m looking at buying a lot of lumber, foundation stuff and leveling the soil for the Green house. I have to cut down some smaller dead trees and clean up/ trim the healthy trees. While I doubt I can grow enough food to be fully independent. I hope to grow enough fresh veggies not to be fully dependent on the grocery stores and 3 day supply cycle.

I have some irises in a protected corner of my front yard and there is about 2-3 inches of new growth in freaking January! The greenhouse getting built is a priority to take advantage of this mild winter. I got some cleanup done on the backyard and garden beds. I need Mom’s input on some of her plants/pots in my garden area. I have a plan on how I will do the “cutting down a tree” work but I want a spotter before I try to limb a tree and cut it down. Even if it is someone to call 911 if I screw up and get bonked on the head.

Update on the drainage rock so far there has been no flooding into the shop. We have not had a lot of snow but we have had rain and so far the shop floor is staying dry. Even the wood I stored in the Carport area has stayed dry. So I hope that little water drainage problem is mostly fixed. The little bird feeders have a huge success, especially the bird baths. While I have not attracted many of the rare or colorful birds. The sparrows and doves are fun to watch feeding and bathing.

Don’t get complacent or lazy. I suppose I did this last year, as I did not keep my focus on all forms of prepping and let some things slide a little bit. Sure, I had reasons why I slacked off but those reasons won’t matter if a disaster hits. A great thing about spending so many years prepping is I have the basics in food, water, tools etc. I just need to top off a few basics and build on what I already have on hand.

I’m one of those people that has been almost 10 years and I started a bit before the 2008 melt down and even I’m still preparing today. Of course I’m worried I’m not prepared if things go sideways. All you can do is the best you can do and hopefully not make many bad mistakes.

It may sound a little crazy but I get a huge boost in December when I see the days start getting long even if it is only a few minutes per day. Oh it can still be dark with clouds having day light last till 5:30 pm compared to 5:00 pm gets me think that Spring is coming and the daylight will last longer each day.

For today’s fire wood work I went back to cutting the Doug Fir for kindling rather than the mill ends. I was a little surprised how easy it was to split the Doug fir compared to the mill ends even with the additional step of using the regular sized axe to split the logs into smaller chunks for the hatchet. As of now I have both of my boxes full of kindling, so I should have about 3-4 weeks worth of worth stored on the front porch. With the winter weather staying mild, I can start filling up the big 18 gallon buckets with kindling.

I seem to be getting a little better at staying ahead for this year’s wood heating but I’d really like to spend next year getting all the fire starters, kindling and fire wood I need for the winter season completed around July or August. I did a little better in 2018 buying and stacking some of the firewood starting in April/May but I did not follow up getting the kindling cut or making the fire starters. In 2019 I will do a better job preparing now that I know what I need for the winter heating season.

I have to recommend getting a garden cart/wagon for anyone that gardens or moves thing like firewood around your property. Sure you can carry arm loads of fire wood and make many trips daily or you could load up the wagon and make only a couple of trips filling the porch wood rack once a week. I prefer using the wagon to carrying armloads of fire wood. I can fill the wagon, take a little break, then unload the wagon. I do that a couple of times and my porch wood rack is full for about 4-5 days. Plus wagons can also move garden stuff in spring and summer. I prefer a wagon to a wheel barrow because I don’t have to lift to move the cart!

Time to start thinking about your spring and summer garden plans. I have to finish building my garden beds, add better fencing to keep one of my dogs from digging in the garden beds. I need to take out a couple of dead cherry trees and start preparing the foundation for a new greenhouse. Plus I’m not a big fan of cherries. I prefer apples, peaches, plums or apricots for fruit trees

Perhaps you have trees that need some work or need to be removed for safety. Start saving up cash because having pro’s do the work costs some money. I’m big into DIY but sometimes it is best to pay the money for pros because they do the work and they take the risk. What I can do is minimize any risk to the pro’s or my self if I decide to take on a job. I hope once all the trees are cleaned up an healthy I can use my basic tools to keep the trees and plants healthy.

For New Year’s dinner I’m going simple. The local grocery store had some nice steaks and lobster tails on sale and I can grill them in under 15 minutes. A salad, corn on the cob from fall and homemade bread and you have a great meal. One thing nice about cooking steak and lobster is the cooking time is minimal, even if it sort of expensive to purchase. New Year’s only happens once a year so it won’t break the budget.

I am moving into storing twenty dollar bills for “Oh Darn!” money if the power or the internet goes out. Locally I’ve seem folks unable to pay for grocery shopping because Century Link (ISP/Phone provider) went off line. I had cash and paid easily without depending on my “smart phone” that I don’t own. For cash on hand I’d recommend $20.00 or smaller bills. If your savings gets a bit bulky convert some of the cash into silver or gold. Just a FYI about digital money and smart phones. They can be convenient but when the ISP goes down or a power outage happens cash is King.

The 2 cords of wood has been delivered and I am still sore from the rock delivery. I have to say the wood delivery people are great! This delivery was easier for them as they only had to dump the wood in one spot (sort of) under the carport and with the rock being mostly in place stacking the wood is much easier for me. I got caught out last year on late wood delivery and having to scramble for wood going into firewood season and the people at Tuckers timbers came through for me.

I have no understanding of people waiting till the last minute to get basic items need for survival. I suppose it is a bit of human nature/lazy and this new world order of I can order on line and have it shipped via Amazon. What if there is none of what you want in stock? All the money in the world won’t make what you want magically appear! My fire wood lady said they had people ask for firewood delivery in December and could not understand the company was out of fire wood.

I want to give a shout out to Buzy Bee’s rock delivery and I was able to get at least most of the gravel spread in time before the wood delivery. Getting the materials for fall/winter projects in place does save time and usually some money. There are a lot of scammers/bad contractors out there so when you get prompt service at the agreed price especially from a local company, I think you should boost up these great businesses whenever you get a chance. Buzy Bee’s delivery of 2.75 yards of rock was less expensive per yard than getting rock from the local farm store and I didn’t have to unload the rock.

Mom stopped by the house and got the wheel barrow back after picking up a load of wood from Tucker’s timbers/ my fire wood supplier. It is my wheel barrow but I loan it to her because I can’t loan her my little garden wagon. I love my garden wagon and that is one of my NO LOAN tools. I’ll share the wheel barrow but loaning the wagon is a NO/GO! LOL

For the next couple of weeks I will be working on finishing up the garden beds and making a proper Tucker ‘the peke’ proof picket fence around the garden. Cash is a little bit tight right now what with stocking up on low cost meat, getting the chimney sweep and the rock delivery. That is more of a matter of timing, rather than not being able to pay my bills.

Hopefully this up coming winter won’t involve scrambling for everything and nothing is available. I have my drainage rock in place, new gravel and mulch that covers most of my alleyway frontage. Next spring I can start adding plants that will choke out the weeds. The wood was bought early (Doug fir in April) and will be dried and stacked for easy winter use. I can’t express how nice it is to see that pile of wood even if I have to stack it as I know my little Casa de Chaos will have dry firewood for heat this winter. Mom wants to stack a mix of Doug fir and the poplar for her heat this winter. With her small house and new windows and insulation she should be good to go this winter with a couple of cords of wood.

Knowledge coming at you (disclaimer).

A full cord of wood is at least 128 square feet of stacked firewood. Generally considered a 4 foot tall 4 foot wide and 8 foot long stack of wood. Most firewood is cut to 16-18 inch lengths, so a cord of wood stacked could be 12 feet long 5 feet tall and 2 rows of 18 inch cut/split firewood also equals a cord of wood. There is a little bit of ‘fudge’ factor in that 128 square feet to equal a cord. Remember it is the cubic volume of the cord of wood must equal at least 128 cubic feet when stacked. I am now getting a close to full cords of firewood from the new supplier rather than “face” cords via the old supplier. Oh there is a bit of wiggle room depending on how tight you stack firewood. Overall I’m getting a much better deal of full cords of cut and split firewood. Between the early delivery of Douglas fir, the mill ends and two cords of poplar I think the wood heating is good for this year with a good level of back up wood on hand. There is nothing wrong with buying a “face” cord or a “rick” of wood. But you must know what a cord of wood costs and what it is worth. If you buy a cord of wood you should get at least 128 sq. feet of stacked wood.

Gosh I’m getting a bit more wood stacked than I thought in this 100 degree heat. One cord is stacked and now I’m starting on the second cord. I think there was a bit more than 2 cords delivered to me. Once I stack and measure all the wood. Well sometimes “KARMA” works for you. I found a great wood supplier and that is making up for the bad wood suppliers I dealt with for wood. That lost $250.00 I tried to help a person is now paying back to me.

It is amazing the efficiency of the new wood stoves. While I don’t agree with outlawing old wood stoves. Survival takes precedence over the law in my book. The new efficient burning wood stove are cleaner burning and safer compared to 70’s/80 era type fire wood stoves. One of greatest things about the new stoves is they hold heat and the fire longer. This is awesome for a someone with a physical disability to have a firebox stay hot for at least 6 hours and not need feeding wood every 2-4 hours so you or your pipes don’t freeze. Don’t forget to check your smoke alarms, Carbon Monoxide alarms and your fire extinguishers. I don’t know that you could fight a fire but having a fire extinguishers might help getting out of a fire.

Overall Mom and I have enough firewood to be snug and warm this winter. I’m not sure Mom will buy a cord of my wood as she seems to be making her own stack of fire wood. That is all to the good as the wood will keep drying if we don’t use it. If we have an easy winter for cold and damp. the firewood only gets another year to dry. I suspect SW Idaho may have a very cold and mostly dry winter in 2018. Trust me I’m prepping for snow, but I don’t think it will happen this winter.

My new garden beds have been a bit of bust but that was my fault, not the garden beds. We are in good shape for going into winter and it is only August.

Socially we are seeing the political pendulum swing back to the right and trying to find it’s center point. We have to hold the line about the difference between legal and illegal immigrants. Re-building the USA manufacturing sector and imports via tariffs. Nationalism and globalism and the wjat is good and what is bad about those choices.

I tend to be a Nationalist of USA first, but international relations are a thing. The USA can’t stick it’s head in the sand and ignore the world. You people have “common sense” what would you do now to make the world if not a better place at least a safer place. Also you will have to show your work. No saying everyone should be nice on twitter and some such nonsense.

I have been doing some research on making home made dog food and it looks very doable plus I should save money compared to buying the caned dog food in the store. I bought some of the ‘fresh pet’ refrigerated dog food to see if my dogs would like/tolerate dog food not in a can. This week the dogs have been eating the fresh pet food and the pups seem to like it much better than the old canned dog food. Only one pup had an upset stomach during the change over to the new food. So for my first batch of home made dog food I’m going to replicate the basic chicken and brown rice recipe. The basic ingredients to start are:

Mineral supplements: until I get more bone broth made and can add some raw meaty bones to the dog’s diet.

No additional salt though I may add some dog safe herbs in the future for vitamins for the pups as I learn more about making dog food

That is the basic mix for the dog food but I will be adding a beef mix and bones as I find what works for my dogs and I learn more about dogie nutrition. I have learned that there are a lot things you should not feed a dog. Anything with garlic, onions or white flour is very bad for dogs. I’m steering clear of using whole wheat for any kind of doggie food grain/carbs. Dogs seem to have a gluten intolerance built in their DNA so easier to use other grains. From what I have research so far on dog safe grains is White or brown rice, steel cut oat meal, whole barley and some of the other gluten free grains like quinoa or a dry feed corn. All grains must be cooked before feeding it to your dog. If you have different data please let me know in the comments as I’m still a newbie at making dog food.

My goal is to feed my dogs better than just the average canned dog food. Make up a big batch of dog food and store it in the fridge or freezer and perhaps can the dog food for storage. While many people say they would feed pets scraps from the table. I would have no problem eating the Dog food I’m making other than adding spices, garlic or onions.

FIY: I stayed away from adding adding salt, pepper or herbs for this recipe but even I found the new mix tasty if a little bland. Adding a little salt and pepper after the food is done cooking should fix that bland taste.
Taste test: Brodie the big peke, loves the chicken and rice dog food! Tucker the peke is half the size of Brodie so 1 or 2 small meals a day fills him up. Tucker finished up the last of the “freshpet” food this morning so he might eat later.

I want to try out a beef & barley recipe, a modified beef stew and using some salmon/white rice recipes this spring. My plan is by using several types of protein, carb and veggie mixes I will get the pups all the vitamins and minerals they need to be healthy. Plus I will eliminate all the “fillers” and chemicals I read on the ingredient labels on ‘wet’ dog food cans.

I may grow a few pumpkins and make a better bed for Sweet potatoes as those are dog safe veggies/carbohydrates for the doggies to eat.

I know many preppers don’t store dog/cat food as they will feed via scraps, but I never cared for that idea as many table scraps are not good for my pekes. With some research I have made good tasting dog food that is darn tasty people food. I used bone-less chicken breasts (on sale) it seems that most home made dog food sites recommend using dark meat chicken and using ‘organ meats’ for the protein part of the recipe.

Overall I’m not sure this is a cheaper way to feed pets but I know the food is safe and I and the dogs like the food. I know I do not want to eat any type of canned pet food.

So get out your slow cooker/crock pot and start making your own pet food. Make some ‘bone broth’ buy cheap cuts of meat and slow cook the veggies and carbs for you and your pets.

Mom has been living in her new house this weekend. We tore down the kennel that Mom uses for her chicken run and move it out to her new home. We both knew it would bee a tough job and having an weather change with an ICY wind really made the job suck! One of the kennel walls has a 4 x 8 foot chunk of OSB that made a bitch to move, but that OSB wall cuts the wind blowing into the little chicken door to the chicken house. It was about 45 minutes prior to sunset when Mom opened the chicken door to the kennel and the birds had a blast scratching around in the protected ” Chicken Run”.

We still need to add a some top fencing to the kennel to keep out predators but we are looking at using green plastic garden/snow type fencing rather than adding chicken wire. Mom likes to add a tarp to the top of the kennel to protect the birds from the weather and the plastic fencing won’t tear up the tarp like the metal chicken wire. I’m still working on adding a light weight wood frame to support the kennel “roof” that will angled so snow will slide off rather than way down the fencing on the top of the kennel.

The weather has shifted, so instead of all the cold weather running down the east side of the Rockies and freezing you all back east it is our turn for cold weather with coming down the western slope of the Rockies. Looks like Mom was right that FEB. and March being our cold months locally. Heck you folks back east need some warmer weather and I hope flooding won’t be a problem. I am doing very good on wood as all my pine seems to be burning well after having a couple of months to season naturally. I prefer burning fruit wood or even Douglas fir rather than pine but after my mad scramble to find wood to burn last fall I have several full wood racks and even better a good plan to get a mix of fast & hot burning wood. Plus the Dually pickup to get long burning fruit wood from the local Orchards.

I did have a have some bad news on my Dogs. Diana the Peke passed away in her sleep after a great 15 years of life. Tucker the peke got into a fight and pop out an eyeball and the eye could not be saved. So the vet removed the eye and sewed the lid shut. Tucker is doing darn good around the place thought he looks a bit like Popeye with his sewed lid. Another $700.00 for Tucker’s surgery killed my newly created “emergency fund”. Well it was an Emergency, so I guess it all worked out. Going to take a few months being tight with funds to start building a new Emergency fund and get the new garden beds installed. At the very worst I’ll have to use last years garden beds, which is not so bad in the grand scheme of things.

Getting wood this year has been a challenge. I thought I had a good supplier and I even paid upfront for a wood delivery to help him get his pickup engine re-built so he could deliver wood. I have not heard a word from that guy since February.

About August I’m starting to get nervous as I have not found a new wood supplier so I get put on a waiting list for pine to be delivered later….. Maybe!

Huzzah! I get get a new wood supplier from a friend recommendation and the wood looks pretty good as it is mostly hardwoods in the first cord that is just a little small but the price is great! Oops! turns out the guy may be facing felony theft charges and the cops have a warrant for his arrest. I’m running out of options to restock my wood racks for this winter heating season so I call up the folks about the pine delivery. Huzzah they will deliver a full cord of pine that fills my wood racks. The people that delivered the pine were great very honest and open about pine not being the best firewood for wood heat rather than just a “decorative” fire in a fire place or wood stove.

Mom and I have learned a lot about burning pine and it has not been fun. It seems with the Ponderosa pine we got is we get to types of fire.

A “smudge” type fire that just sort of smolders and smokes without putting out a lot of heat.

A “bonfire” with lots of flame that burns out quick with the damper wide open.

I’m not some sort of wood burning purist as I can usually find the positives along with the negatives of burning different types of wood but I’m not finding a lot of positive thing to say about burning pine for heat.

I did have a some very positive wood buying experiences. The guy that delivered the mill ends was great! Yeah it was just a ranger pickup load of mill ends but he stacked the wood in the bed rather than just dumped it in the box. So I got a lot more wood than I anticipated. The people that delivered the pine say they will have Douglas/ Red fir starting in in May next year so I can get an early start on my wood pile for next winter.

Last but not least I still have quite a bit of leftover wood from last year that is finally dried out from last spring. The problem is almost all of that wood is under all the pine wood I stacked on the wood racks. Now Mom and I are re-stacking the pine to get at the older dried wood. There is a lot more leftover wood from last year than I thought originally. Now that I have enough wood racks next year I can fill/rotate the older dried wood and fill up the new wood racks rather than just stack the new fire wood on top of the older fire wood.

I don’t know if this is a thing with kiln dried wood but the pine that was kiln dried seems to suck in moisture like a sponge. In SW Idaho we have had inversions and a very humid (for us) winter. My thinking is the kiln drying may open up the wood cells to dry might make those wood cells open to moisture once the wood is out of the kiln. I’m not going to throw the pine in the trash but I’m going to use last year’s woods and give the pine time to dry naturally.

UPDATE: Putting the thermal barrier down on the back entry way floor has made a huge difference in the feeling of warmth in the back part of the house. I can’t say the area was drafty but it was a cold sink that was noticeable, and the temp in the back part of the house is averaging about 2+ degrees F. warmer compare to before adding the thermal barrier. That may not sound like much but, that 2 degree difference can create a drafty feeling.

That pic gives a good idea of all the all the work done via the siding to the right as you are looking at the pic you see part of the new window installed. I did not have the porch windows replaced because of the additional cost. The porch is protected but not insulated so it seemed a bit silly to invest in new windows for that area.

This is the before pic after the roof was added

North side of the house from the front yard.

As you can see I need to paint the foundation area next spring or summer but I very please with the look of the siding. Adding a stone fascia would be optimal but paint is a lot cheaper and faster. My local True Value store has matched both the red and grey colors on the house so I will probably get a red paint for the foundation that matches the red accents. I’ll be adding the new door lever and dead bolt to the front door once I get paid next week. I’m going with an aged bronze finish like I installed on the back door.

Other happenings:

My neighbor is buying the large rounds of wood that I got but wasn’t split. The neighbor is a burly guy and I’ve seen him split wood so this give me more space for wood and the neighbor get some great wood late in the season for a great price. With this wood and buying fruit (apple and cherry) from the local orchards staying warm via wood heat won’t be a problem.

Speaking of burning wood both Mom and I are learning how to burn split pine. I have wood racks on a concrete base and when there is an inversion dry soft woods suck in moisture like a sponge. All wood is now up off the concrete and is covered on top by a tarp. All of the wood ends are exposed to the wind for drying. Here in the west we don’t have a lot of hardwood for burning. I recommend stocking up on Douglass/red fir and hit the orchards for apple/cherry wood. Elm and locust can grow here but it a bitch to split.

Speaking of splinting wood I found a youtube vid of using a sledge hammer with an axe or splinting maul to split large rounds of wood. It is not fast but it it should be doable for me if it works. I have a few rounds I’d like to make smaller and if it works I can go out and pound on the logs without trying to muscle through the splitting the logs.

Last but not least I laid down thermal barrier on the floor of my backdoor entry way. I think when it was originally installed it was a glass patio door and then enclosed. The floor area sits on concrete and has very little insulation. I added a rubber backed carpet and that helped some on the cold and heat from the concrete radiating hot in summer and cold in winter. I laid down Thermal barrier on the floor and cover with the rubber back carpet and we gained another 2 degrees of heat in the back room. The carpet is not sliding around and the back part of the house is getting warmer as I type.

I don’t think the addition to my house was very well insulated so I have to insulate as money become available. I’m not going to screw around ripping off the siding so that means I have to insulate from the inside out. I’m not going to tear out drywall because I feel a bit cool and semi uncomfortable. I’ll make this as comfortable as possible then gather cash to make things more comfortable.

It is not like we are freezing to death. Heck at worst the temp reading was 62 degrees F. Hardly a precursor to the Apocalypse! Add socks and put on a sweater is not exactly a sign of the end of civilization.